.. _tutorial_2: Tutorial 2: Steady State RANS ----------------------------- .. contents:: Table of Contents :depth: 1 :local: :backlinks: none In Tutorial 1, we learnt how to run a case in zCFD and visualise the results. We will now use a more complex test case to showcase some of the features of the solver. The case we will look at is the 30P30N aerofoil, which is a 2D multi element aerofoil, developed as an acoustic benchmark case [:ref:`1 `]. The geometry of this case can be seen below: .. image:: ../images/tutorial2/30p30n.png :width: 600 :alt: 30P 30N Initially we will begin by obtaining a steady state RANS solution. The required meshes and control dictionary can be found `here `_. The case has 64,000 cells, and will run in less than 10 minutes on an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU. This case is run as a steady state simulation, using an implicit time marching scheme. The Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved using Menter’s SST turbulence model with wall functions. Control Dictionary Breakdown ============================ The setup for this case is very similar to the previous NACA0012 cases, but the control dictionary does feature some extra terms which can be useful for a more streamlined workflow. Reference variables ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ At the top of the control file, the key variables for the case- Reynolds number, Mach number, temperature etc… are all hard coded, and then referred to later in the script. In cases where you might want to run many simulations with slightly different values to change, this can be an effective way to ensure consistency with variables. Additionally this allows implicit values such as the reference velocity, and freestream Mach to be calculated automatically in the script. .. code-block:: python # create variables to assign main experimental parameters reynolds = 1.71e6 mach = 0.17 T = 295.56 p = 101325 R = 287.6 gamma = 1.4 reference_length = 0.457 alpha = 5.5 # calculate implicit values rho = p / (R * T) U = math.sqrt(gamma * R * T) * mach # assign each mesh zone to a boundary wall = [6] symmetry = [4,5] farfield =[7] Scale ^^^^^ In this case a scaling is applied to convert the size of the mesh. The .h5 mesh file was generated with units of inches, whereas the flow conditions are specified in SI units, therefore a scaling of 0.0254 is applied to convert the mesh into metres. The z (spanwise) direction has been scaled to be 1 metre wide. The mesh has only a single cell in the z direction so no spanwise flow is expected - making the z extent of the mesh 1 metre simply means that the forces and moments reported by zCFD will already be per unit span. .. code-block:: python # scale the mesh to match the experimental data 'scale' : [0.0254,0.0254,0.0254/0.127], Inflow vector ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In this case we want to simulate the aerofoil operating at an angle of attack of 4 degrees. Rather than rotating the mesh, it is easier to rotate the inflow vector relative to the mesh, an example of a Galilean transformation. The :code:`zutil` function :code:`vector_from_angle()` calculates the inflow vector given an x-z angle of attack, x-y angle of attack and flow speed. .. code-block:: python 'IC_1' : { 'temperature': T, 'pressure': p, 'V': { # calculate the inflow vector based on the angle of attack 'vector' : zutil.vector_from_angle(0.0,alpha,U), }, 'Reynolds No' : reynolds, 'Reference Length' : reference_length, 'turbulence intensity': 0.01, 'eddy viscosity ratio': 0.1, 'ambient turbulence intensity': 1e-20, 'ambient eddy viscosity ratio': 1e-20, }, Transform ^^^^^^^^^ The lift and drag forces acting on a body are defined relative to the freestream flow, lift normal and drag parallel. In this case, where we have rotated the relative inflow vector to a specific angle of attack, it is also useful to rotate the force report by the same vector. The transformed forces will appear as Ft_ terms in the report file. .. code-block:: python # define a function to rotate the output forces by the angle of attack def my_transform(x,y,z): v = [x,y,z] v = zutil.rotate_vector(v,0.0,alpha) return {'v1' : v[0], 'v2' : v[1], 'v3' : v[2]} Running the case ================ You can run the case as you did for Tutorial 1, but with the following **run_zcfd** command: .. code-block:: bash run_zcfd -m 30p30n_coarse.h5 -c 30p30n_steady.py Monitoring convergence ====================== Start by launching a Jupyter server to examine the residuals in the 30p30n_steady_report.csv file. Running the first cell from the 30p30n_steady_report.ipynb notebook will plot the residuals for the continuity, momentum, and energy equations, as well as the residuals from the turbulence model. If the case is still running you can update the plot by rerunning the cell, this provides a way to monitor the progress of a running simulation. .. image:: ../images/tutorial2/Figure_1.png :width: 600 :alt: Convergence You will notice that case is set to run for 1000 cycles but looking at the plots, it looks like the residuals are still converging. So we will now restart the solver from where we finished and run on for another 1000 cycles. Performing a restart ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ To restart the solver we need to update the *'restart'* parameter in the control dictionary. If this is set to *False* the solver will always perform a fresh start, if it is *True* then a results file will be read in and the solve will start based on the data in that file. To enable the restart edit *30p30n_steady.py* and change restart to *True*. You will also need to update *'cycles'* to 2000. .. code-block:: python "restart": True, 'time marching' : { ... 'cycles' : 2000, ... } By default zCFD will look for a results file with the same name as the current case file, appended with '_results.h5'. So in our case it will look for "30p30n_steady_results.h5". When you have edited the control dictionary go ahead and restart the simulation again using the same **run_zcfd** command: .. code-block:: bash run_zcfd -m 30p30n_coarse.h5 -c 30p30n_steady.py Once the solver has finished rerun the cell in the notebook to examine the residuals again. The residuals now look like they have converged: .. image:: ../images/tutorial2/Figure_1a.png :width: 600 :alt: Convergence .. If we wanted to restart from a differently named case, we can supply a path to the case in the *"restart casename"* argument. This should be the path to the `casename.py` file, with the `.py` extension removed. For example if we were restarting from a case called "30p30n_run", we could add the below to the dictionary. The solver would then look for *30p30n_run_results.h5* to restart from. .. .. code-block:: python .. "restart": True, .. "restart casename": "30p30n_run", Plotting force convergence ========================== Examining the force convergence history next, we are interested in the x and y forces, but transformed by the inflow vector, therefore the wall_Ftx and wall_Fty plots are of interest. .. image:: ../images/tutorial2/Figure_2.png :width: 600 :alt: Forces Ftx .. image:: ../images/tutorial2/Figure_3.png :width: 600 :alt: Forces Fty Which show reasonable agreement with experimental results, and additionally that the forces are at least nearing convergence. The grid for this case is still extremely coarse, accounting for the differences in lift and drag coefficients. Paraview ======== Opening Paraview, and loading in the `30p30n_steady_wall.pvd` results will allow you to view the aerofoil surface results: .. image:: ../images/tutorial2/Figure_4.png :width: 600 :alt: 30p30n C_p shaded To get a continuous plot of cp against x/c you need to use a plot over sorted lines filter. To do this: #. On the surface data apply a *‘cell data to point data’* filter. #. On the *cell data to point data* apply a *‘slice’* filter, ensuring the slice uses a z normal, and is centred through the middle of the aerofoil #. On the *slice* data apply a *‘plot on sorted lines’* filter and click apply. This will then bring up a new *‘line graph’* view. #. Make sure to select all 3 segments in the composite data set dialogue box, then ensure only the cp variables are selected in the series parameters. Finally for the X Array name, select *‘Points_X’* #. Modify the style and markers until you are happy with the result. .. image:: ../images/tutorial2/Figure_5.png :width: 600 :alt: cp against x/c .. _tutorial_2_citations: Citations ========= 1. Zhang, Yufei & Chen, Haixin & Wang, Kan & Wang, Meng. (2017). Aeroacoustic Prediction of a Multi-Element Airfoil Using Wall-Modeled Large-Eddy Simulation. AIAA Journal. 55. 1-15. 10.2514/1.J055853.